The present invention relates to luggage security, and more particularly concerns an arrangement for preventing inadvertent or unauthorized opening of luggage latching devices.
Soft-sided luggage, and in particular luggage of the type generally termed a duffle bag, requires a number of latches or slide fasteners for effectively closing the bag interior compartments. For example, a large flexible flap, to cover a duffle bag opening, may have a separate and independent slide fastener to close the flap along each of its sides and may have one or more latching type fasteners, such as quarter turn twist lock fasteners, for securing the forward edge of the flap to the bag body. A single slide fastener, running continuously around all three sides of such a flap may be feasible only where the slide fastener runs in a plane that is substantially perpendicular to the plane of the flap. However, such a single continuous fastener is not feasible where the fastener must lie in the plane of the flap and turn a corner in such a plane. Accordingly, separate latching devices, whether slide fasteners, twist lock fasteners, or other commonly known luggage fasteners, must be used for the three different edges of the flap.
Duffle-type luggage often is formed with a number of interior compartments, each having its own closure and latching device. Thus, it is common to have a duffle-type bag with four or more slide fasteners, in addition to other fasteners as may be appropriate. Slide fasteners may become inadvertently displaced and accidently opened during luggage handling. For this reason, and also to prevent unauthorized opening of the slide fastener, it is common to attach a D-ring to the luggage adjacent the slide fastener operation tongue in closed position, and lock the slide to the D-ring through the slide tongue. Similarly, for other types of luggage fasteners, such as the common hinged-over-the-center hard luggage latch, various types of locks, such as key operated locks, are connected to or built into the latch to prevent inadvertent and unauthorized operation. However, where a number of such latches are required for a given piece of luggage, a number of locking devices are required. Prior practice requires a separate lock for each luggage latching device. A large number of locks greatly adds to the cost of the luggage and to the inconvenience to the user because of the time and effort involved in locking and unlocking a number of such devices.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to avoid or minimize above mentioned problems.